FriquiFund celebrates its Q4 2022 plenary session and meets robotics teacher to get first-hand learnings and insights

FriquiFund celebrated its Q4 2022 plenary session on Dec 1st to update its members on performance, meet a partner NGO and discuss new initiatives.

On this occasion we reviewed in detail our collaboration with Scientia in offering robotics for girls (and boys!) to high-complexity schools. FriquiFund is piloting a robotics program using Codey Rocky robots in two schools, one in Montornès del Vallès and one in Terrassa. Overall 100+ students face weekly challenges to develop their computational thinking with cute little robots and an icon-based programming interface. Tonyi Piñero, the teacher leading the program at Escola Marinada (Montornès del Vallès), shared her views on the program and was enthusiastic on how her students are making progress, especially girls. She praised the course design, that starts with problem solving and ends with programming, allowing for flexible solutions. She shared that her students cannot wait until the next challenge is up and reported that girls are making the most out of it, empowering them in technology.

We shared the good progress on the mentoring program, the new website and social media sites (Linkedin and Twitter).

We also shared two new initiatives that will be launched in the coming months: (1) professional orientation for tech high schools in underprivileged neighborhoods and (2) scholarships in tech schools for vulnerable students. Stay tuned for more news!

KPIs:

• On-site participants: 40+ combining FF members and guests. We welcomed 8 new members
• Remote particitpants: 20+ from different 5+ countries
• Participants who stayed for dinner: 32
• Students in robotics: 105 in two schools
• High-complexity schools in Catalonia: 200+
• Cost per student and robotics session: 2€ approx

Picture at the Citizen Cafe:

Full presentation here: